Bay Area Dragons bounce back, defeat June Mar-less Beermen
Games Wednesday
(PhilSports Arena)
3 p.m. – Meralco vs Phoenix
6 p.m. – TNT vs NLEX
BLOWN away by a titan last time, the Bay Area Dragons rebounded mightily and ripped another behemoth to shreds.
Drawing fire from Andrew Nicholson’s 39-point, 12-rebound performance, the Dragons clobbered San Miguel Beer (SMB), 113-87, in a surprisingly one-sided PBA Commissioner’s Cup tiff between favorites last night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Mr. Nicholson’s early fire-breathing set the tone as Bay Area seized an early 20-point margin and never looked back on their way to the huge bounceback to its 111-93 fall to Barangay Ginebra a week ago.
“We had a great attitude after that game (loss). We had a great week of practice. We stuck together and translated what we did in practice into the game,” said Mr. Nicholson who already had 25 in the first half.
The guest team of Hong Kong moved up to 4-1 as they added the reigning Philippine Cup titlists to its list of preys alongside unheralded Blackwater, NorthPort, Phoenix and Converge.
“We knew we didn’t play the top teams at first and then we got our first opponent (Ginebra) and got whacked. So the adjustment in this one is huge for the young guys’ confidence and for the growth of this team,” said Bay Area coach Brian Goorjian.
Hayden Blankley (17), Songwei Zhu (16), Kobey Lam (16) and Chuanxing Liu (12) provided ample support to former NBA player Nicholson in the beatdown of SMB (1-2).
CJ Perez (19) and Vic Manuel (15) showed the way for the Beermen as import Diamond Stone had a lackluster 11-pointer.
SMB badly missed six-time MVP June Mar Fajardo, who is out for at least four weeks after undergoing surgery for a throat fracture. He sustained that in the SMB’s 113-105 victory over Rain or Shine last Sunday.
“They were hurt (by Mr. Fajardo’s absence) for sure. He’s maybe the best player in the competition. They played off him and they won a championship with him,” said Mr. Goorjian.
“But the great thing about San Miguel, they got tremendous depth, they have backup bigs, they’re deep in the guard spots. They missed him definitely but they have enough there for us to feel good about beating a team of that quality without him.”
The Beermen held a 12-7 lead in the opening minutes and were still in the thick of things in the second period before Mr. Nicholson fuelled the Dragons’ breakaway to 58-38. — Olmin Leyba
The Scores:
BAY AREA 113 – Nicholson 39, Blankley 17, Zhu 16, Lam 16, Liu 12, Reid 6, Song 3, Ju 2, Ewing 2, Zheng 0, Yang 0, Si 0, Liang 0
SAN MIGUEL 87 – Perez 19, Manuel 15, Stone 11, Enciso 9, Tautuaa 9, Cruz 8, Lassiter 7, Brondial 4, Zamar 3, Ross 2, Herndon 0, Canete 0
QUARTERScores: 28-17, 58-40, 86-58, 113-87
